Pension scheme more attractive.

The exit age of the contributory pension scheme "swavalamban" has been relaxed to 50 years from 60 years in the budget. The benefit of govt. contribution has been extended from three years to five years for all subscribers of swavalamban who enroll during 2010-11 and 2011-12. JITENDRA KUMAR SINGH PGDM SECOND-SEM

All about finance

our indian economy depends on finance. i mean to say that without source of finance the economy cannot survive. recently india faced inflation. there are many factory affecting inflation. such as rapid rise in the price of crude oil.

Direct tax collections up 20.75 percent in April-Feb

New Delhi: Net direct tax collections grew by 20.75 percent to Rs 3,36,117 crore during the April-February period of the current financial year.

Direct tax collections stood at Rs 2,78,411 crore in the same period last fiscal.

Corporate income tax collections grew by 24.01 per cent to Rs 223,612 crore during the review period from Rs 1,80,318 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. Furthermore, personal income tax grew by 14.76 percent to Rs 1,12,114 crore. 
Securities Transaction Tax (STT) revenue grew by 1.72 per cent to Rs 6,078 crore during the 11-month period ending February, 2011.

Net direct tax collections during the period amounted to Rs 3.36 lakh crore, which was 75.38 percent of the revised estimates target of Rs 4,46,000 crore for the entire fiscal. This indicates a shortfall of Rs 1.10 lakh crore is left to be covered in the final month of the financial year if the target is to be met

JITENDRA KUMAR SINGH

PGDM SECOND SEM. 

.Indian-American executive sold tips to Rajaratnam for $1.75 million

New York, March 11 (IANS) Anil Kumar, a former Indian American partner of consulting firm McKinsey & Co has testified to leaking secrets about his clients to billionaire hedge fund tycoon Raj Rajaratnam in exchange for $1.75 million.
Taking the witness stand in the biggest US insider trading trial in years, Kumar, 52, told a New York court Thursday that Sri Lankan-born Galleon hedge fund founder Rajaratnam practically put the money in his account against his will.
It was because Rajaratnam had paid him so much (the agreement was for $250,000 per year) that he felt obligated to tell him secret information about AMD, a micro chip company whose shares Rajaratnam allegedly traded improperly, he said.
' [I violated my confidentiality agreement with McKinsey and AMD because] Raj kept asking and I felt I owed him something given how much he paid me,' a remorseful looking Kumar dressed in a black suit and a black tie testified.
He said a couple of times that he felt like he had to give information to Raj because Raj was paying him.
Specifically, Kumar said, he told Raj material non-public information about 'Octeron,' a chip that AMD was secretly creating (its code name was 'Maid' because it was so top secret) in order to challenge Intel's big business with HP.
Upon learning about the 'Octeron' chip and AMD's plan to sell the chip to HP or Dell and subvert Intel's business with the companies, Raj said, 'That's very useful information,' according to Kumar.
Raj is the only person with whom Kumar shared info, according to his testimony. And he only told him because Raj had put $250,000 into his account somewhat unbeknown to Kumar.
Kumar says he was only made aware of the payments entering his account a few weeks after the transaction happened.
Kumar alleged that according to Rajaratnam's plan payments would be transferred from 'Instanet,' a company which apparently hedge funds and other financial firms frequently use to make 'soft dollar' payments to experts, to 'Pecos Trading,' an offshore company in Switzerland. From there, the money would be transferred in the name of Kumar's housekeeper, Manju Das.
Kumar said Rajaratnam told him: 'You work very, very hard. You are underpaid. People are making fortunes ... so just keep track of your knowledge and share it with me.'
Earlier the Manhattan court also for the first time heard the voice of Rajaratnam captured on FBI wiretaps. He is heard at times giggling with associates and on other occasions speaking rapidly in a high-pitched voice, rattling off numbers and acronyms for companies.
Along with Kumar, the recordings featured another friend-turned-government-witness, Intel Corp's Rajiv Goel, and former Galleon employee Adam Smith, who will also testify in the two-month trial.
Prosecutors allege that Smith and Rajaratnam conspired to obtain secret information about a potential acquisition of Vishay Intertechnology Inc, a company prosecutors cited in charges against both men.
Kumar's testimony will resume on Monday. He is among 19 people who have pleaded guilty to conspiracy or fraud charges in the broad Galleon probe.
Prosecutors say Rajaratnam made $45 million in illicit profit from 2003 to March 2009 through insider trading. His lawyers contend that he conducted legitimate stock research and did not gain an unfair advantage over other investors
JITENDRA KUMAR SINGH
PGDM SECOND- SEM.

Current level of food inflation ‘unacceptable’: Pranab

Terming the current level of food inflation of 9.5 per cent as “unacceptable”, the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, on Friday said the government has taken several steps to bring it down further especially through enhancing supply of essential commodities.

“At the beginning of last year, food inflation was 20.2 per cent, and now it is 9.5 per cent. However, this figure is equally unacceptable,” Mr. Mukherjee said while replying to the discussion on the General Budget 2011-12 in Lok Sabha.

Mr. Mukherjee said the high inflationary pressure, especially in food and some non-food articles, existed in other emerging economies also.

“I am not making any plea. This is not an excuse that because there is inflation in other areas there should be inflation in India also. It is not. But the fact of the matter is inflationary pressure is visible all over the world. It is not merely in our country,” he said.

Linking food inflation to global developments, the Minister pointed out that the surplus liquidity is being converted into commodity. “There are apprehensions It appears to be the ground reality that surplus liquidity has been converted into commodity such as oil and foodgrain”, he said.

Mr. Mukherjee said such a trend was also noticed in other essential commodities.

“These are the economic factors. We may try to wish them away but we cannot because the global linkage is here..”, he said

Food inflation has been in the double-digits for most of this fiscal.

According to latest figures, it has, however, dipped to 9.52 per cent for the week ended February 26.

The overall inflation continues to be above 8 per cent mark since February 2010. The government is expecting that it would fall to 7 per cent by March end.

But, political unrest in Middle East and North Africa resulting in high crude oil prices, have raised doubts on the projections, experts said.

The government has taken various steps in the Budget like special initiative for agriculture, supply chain management, promotion of coal chains among others, Mr. Mukherjee said.

“These are intended to address issues of demand and supply constraints”, he said.

He also expressed concern over the state of distribution network in the country including the PDS (Public Distribution System) for Below poverty line (BPL) families saying it was not up to the mark.

He said the government has received a number of suggestions from the expert group headed by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on revamping the PDS and added “there are some suggestions which could be implemented.”

JITENDRA KUMAR SINGH

PGDM- SECOND SEM.

Bigger cos more optimistic on Q4 than smaller ones: RBI Survey

Mumbai, Mar 10 (PTI) Bigger companies, with paid-up capital (PUC) of over Rs 100 crore, are more optimistic about their business and financial situations than the smaller ones for the January-March quarter, according to a RBI survey.
"Bigger companies (annual production above Rs 1,000 crore or PUC above Rs 100 crore) are more optimistic about overall business and financial situations. The smaller companies (annual production less than Rs 100 crore or PUC less than Rs 10 crore) are less optimistic," according to RBI Quarterly Industrial Outlook Survey.
The Survey was conducted during October-December 2010.
The smaller companies are less optimistic as their net response on production, order books and capacity utilisation are at lower levels than those of the bigger companies.
"Bigger companies are more optimistic about domestic as well as external demand," it said.
The Survey also said the manufacturers expect the growth to moderate in January-March, 2011.
The survey findings exhibit the Indian manufacturing sector continued to gain strength as Business Expectation Index (BEI) for the October-December quarter increased to 122.8 from 119.0.
"However, the sentiment is expected to moderate for the January-March, 2011 quarter with BEI moderating to 125.9 from 126.5 in the the previous quarter," it added.
The index is computed from the responses of all the industries on selected nine performance parameters, including overall business situation, production and order books.
The Survey also seeks responses from the manufacturers about their perceptions on change in employment in their companies covering full-time, part-time and casual labour.
"About 25 per cent of the respondents have reported addition to their labour force in October-December, 2010 quarter which is also reflective of growing demand condition,"
JITENDRA KUMAR SINGH
PGDM-SEM-2

Bank of Baroda to raise Rs. 32.8 bn

State-run Bank of Baroda will raise up to Rs. 32.8 billion through a preferential allotment of shares to the government at Rs. 902.14 each, it said in a statement over the weekend.

The bank will hold an extra-ordinary general meeting for shareholders' approval on March 29, it added.
Other public lenders such as Indian Overseas Bank, UCO Bank and United Bank of India have also said they would preferentially allot shares to the government in return for capital infusion.
In December, India's cabinet approved additional capital infusion of 60 billion rupees ($1.3 billion) into state-run banks to strengthen their capital adequacy and to increase the government's stake in them.

Manali
PGDM 2NDSEM